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This is part of A Time of Eclipse from the Core Book. One would have thought a cataclysmic event such as the Fall would bring the surviving elements of transhumanity closer together, jointly dedicating themselves to the repopulation of the solar system and continued prosperity. Instead, the remoteness and physical isolation of transhuman colonies and habitats stretched across the solar system, as well as the effects emerging technologies have had on transhuman economies and social lives, have promoted the evolution of a wide spectrum of philosophies, agendas, and political models. The Hypercorps To some economists, the Fall and the numerous crises that predated it on Earth can be viewed as an extinction event, the end of the line for the massive transnational megacorp dinosaurs, financial giants that supported their monolithic frameworks on outdated economic models and industrial technologies. The hypercorps are their evolutionary descendants: slimmer, faster, meaner, and more flexible, eagerly embracing the possibilities of new technologies and never afraid to toss the old aside to take advantage of the new. It was the hypercorps that drove transhumanity’s expansion into space and who continue to push the technological envelope, guiding transhumanity towards new horizons — always with profit as their driving goal. Most hypercorps are decentralized, non-asset-based legal entities. Complete automation, advanced robotics, morph technology, and cornucopia machines allow the hypercorps to abstain from mass employment for labor or production services. The need for physical labor has mostly been reduced to tasks associated with habitat construction, terraforming, or deep space mining. Infomorphs and AIs are heavily employed (or more accurately, owned) as drone operators or virtual workers, and many administrative tasks are performed online via augmented reality, virtual private networks, and simulspace nodes. Some hypercorps are in fact entirely “virtual,” with no physical assets and each employee acting as a mobile office. A few major hypercorps literally consist of only a dozen transhuman personnel. Though some hypercorps are massive and diversified, most specialize in particular fields or services. This results in both an intricate system of partnerships to develop, produce, and market products and services and a large-scale tendency to internally contract special services from other hypercorps. Many hypercorps also pool their resources and talent into cooperative research initiatives, project centers, or shared habitats. Most hypercorps are traditional capitalist in outlook, though many have adopted alternative business philosophies and management models. This might include basing decisions on internal forecast market trends, groupthink consensus models, or ditching management entirely in favor of staff polling/voting initiatives that statistically fare better. A few are anarcho-capitalist or mutualist companies originating from Extropian enclaves, though these often suffer from a bias when making deals with inner system powers. See List of Hypercorps. Politics Transhumanity, and the solar system as a whole, is divided into a number of political groups. Political Blocs Transhumanity’s social, cultural, and ideological diversity, combined with its scattered and isolated presence in habitat clusters throughout the solar system, gives rise to a wide range of political memes and factions advocating equally diverse organizational models. Many of these have banded together into larger political entities to further mutual goals and act in cooperative self-interest. * Jovian Republic * Lunar-Lagrange Alliance * Morningstar Constellation * Planetary Consortium * Tharsis League The Autonomist Alliance In addition to the above organized political groups there is a loose association of technically apolitical groups which are loosely organized into a cooperative association known as the Autonomist Alliance. Its members are the following: * Anarchists * Extropians * Scum * Titanian Commonwealth Socio-Political Movements Aside from sectarian political factions, a number of socio-political movements are widespread throughout the solar system. * Argonauts * Barsoomians * Bioconservatives * Brinkers * Exhumans * Mercurials * Nano-ecologists * Preservationists * Reclaimers * Socialites * Ultimates Also see the IC articles about Neo-Primitivists and Out'sters. Religious Groups Despite having survived the Fall, the concepts of religion and religious belief underwent changes as fundamental as transhumanity itself. While Earth’s old religions were already in decline in the face of technological immortality, religious traditions ingrained after millennia of worship were incorporated to varying degrees in the solar system’s myriad political, social, and cultural models. Pre-Fall Religions The rigid structures and dogmas enveloping Christianity and Judaism prohibited these religions from adapting to the cultural, philosophical, and especially scientific/technological changes transhumanity underwent. Today, they are mere shadows of their former glory, with many practitioners seen as pitiful individuals unable to let go of their earthbound delusions. Islam, while still holding some controversial views and values, managed to adapt by accepting a more liberal and even secular view. It also benefited from being more widespread among early space colonists and survivors of the Fall. Hinduism also prevailed to a limited extent, considering resleeving technology an element of reincarnation and rebirth and integrating the various types of morphs available into the religion’s caste system (with synthmorphs becoming the “untouchables”). Overall, followers of the pre-Fall religions mostly populate small habitats isolated from transhumanity through both physical and philosophical distance. New Religions The Fall sparked the birth of new beliefs, essentially embracing both transhumanity’s technological achievements as well as the devastating cataclysm of the Fall as evidence for the existence of a greater cosmic power. Neo-Buddhism is the only pre-Fall religious philosophy that enjoys a steady popularity. Neo-buddhists assert that transhumanist technologies are decreasing suffering and increasing happiness and that they will also allow the continual progression of transhumanity’s understanding of the universe through successive lives. Technocreationists believe that the destruction of Earth was a sign from God, showing transhumanity the error of its ways. They believe that through technological advancement and social engineering, transhumanity will achieve co-existence with its diverse self as well as with extraterrestrial intelligences, thereby finding new purpose and, eventually, enlightenment. Attracted by the similarities to the brahman of Hinduism, the highest cosmic spiritual being, technocreationists enjoy a steady influx of converted hindus. Xenodeism is another new — though relatively minor — ideology that begins to show religious attributes. Xenodeists worship the Factors and Iktomi as emissaries or prophets of a great godlike race that laid the seeds of creation throughout the universe millions of years ago and therefore are the ultimate creators of transhumanity. Criminal Factions Technological progress and social and behavioral experimentation did not root out crime or criminal tendencies among transhumanity. As long as there are inequalities and restrictions, criminal syndicates are likely to flourish and even adapt new technologies to expand their operations throughout the solar system. Though small criminal outfits of every flavor exist from habitat to habitat, a few larger organizations with influence across the solar system deserve mention. * Intelligent Design Crew * Night Cartel * Nine Lives * Pax Familie * Pirates * Triads Firewall Firewall has been on the forefront of the secret fight to save transhumanity since the Fall. Firewall is an independent network of cells and individuals recruited from all sorts of factions, cultures, backgrounds, and habitats. Potential new recruits are approached in secret and told they possess skills or knowledge of use to a clandestine network seeking to secure transhumanity’s continued survival. Firewall’s agenda is simple: to protect transhumanity from threats of existential scope, regardless of whether such risks emerge from within transhumanity or are of external, alien origin. Firewall operatives — known as sentinels — are encouraged to act independently and utilize their own resources. Sentinels are connected by a social network known as the Eye, which they can use to acquire help and additional needed skills or resources. A sentinel’s i-rep on this network indicates how much they are trusted and will be a factor in determining what aid they can call in. Firewall also takes care of large expenses and logistics when necessary, such as egocasting and resleeving needs. Sentinels are guaranteed resurrection, either via cortical stack or by backup, if they lose their lives on a Firewall op. Sentinels are generally expected to be on-call—when something comes up in their vicinity or that their particular specialty might call for, they’ll be brought in on a job. Sentinels are usually grouped into ad hoc special ops teams appropriate to each mission. Though many sentinels pursue their own agendas after completing a mission for Firewall, it is not uncommon for sentinel teams to remain in contact, share information or continue to work together on Firewall-related assignments over a longer period of time. Firewall operations are organized and managed by proxies, agents who maintain Firewall’s decentralized infrastructure. Proxies possess more information than individual sentinels and will dispense such information as they deem necessary to the mission, according to each sentinel’s i-rep and need to know. Each proxy’s means of contact, mission briefing, and overall methodologies differ greatly. Also see the In Character communication about Project Ozma. Prometheans A prominent topic among conspiracy theorists is the existence of a group of seed AIs calling themselves Prometheans. Rumors of these entities predated the Fall and occasionally flare up as some new evidence comes to light, though such evidence is almost always discredited soon after. According to some theories, the Prometheans predated the TITANs and may even have been responsible for bringing the TITANs into existence. Others postulate that the Prometheans were a TITAN splinter faction that broke off and attempted to counteract the TITANs activities during the Fall. Still others whisper that the Prometheans are not of transhuman origin at all and are actually a digital alien mindform that found Earth and now actively interferes with transhuman affairs. Whether the Prometheans are hostile, friendly, or indifferent remains a matter of much conjecture and contention. Prominent organizations like the Planetary Consortium discount such rumors or otherwise remain silent. Category:Setting Category:Core Book Category:Incomplete